Wolverhampton Wolves fight back for win

Wolves boss Peter Adams hailed a ‘remarkable’ result as his five-man side grabbed a 46-44 win over Belle Vue.

Subscribe to our daily newsletter

Sam Masters wins heat three Picture: Steve Feeney

The home side lost Rory Schlein and Kyle Howarth with injures after a horrific heat one pile-up, but somehow fought back from six points down to take the win.

Sam Masters won the last-heat decider and Adams believes it has kept their season alive. He said: “It’s a remarkable performance after losing two riders. If we had lost at home tonight, our play-off hopes were over, but we are still alive. I’m surprised Belle Vue made such hard work of it, but all the boys responded so well when we really needed them to.”

It got off to the worst possible start for the home side with Howarth slipping off going into bend three. Schlein had nowhere to go but over the top of him, ploughing into the air fence.

After a lengthy delay, both riders were ruled out, Schlein with a neck injury and Howarth with damaged thumb. Not even a lap had been raced and Wolves were in deep trouble. When Craig Cook and Steve Worrall raced to a comfortable 5-1 in heat five to go 18-12 up, it looked all over.

But an excellent maximum from Sam Masters and Jonas B Andersen in heat nine got the home side back within two points to turn up the pressure.

However, then the temperature went up a notch. After a very tight first turn in the following race, it got ugly between Masters and visiting reserve Mark Riss.

There were verbals exchanged before Riss punched the former Australian champion leaving him sprawled out on the Monomer Green track.

In the rerun, another nasty three-rider pile-up saw Ashley Morris excluded. Masters won the third rerun and Jacob Thorssell the next to keep the deficit to just 28-26 down with four races to go.

But then came the remarkable finale with Masters taking the last heat to give Wolves an unlikely home win.